soul. There a thousand of them sit, under proper officers, proper
wages, treatment;--and the hum of their poor spindles, and of
their poor inarticulate old hearts, is a comfort, if one chance to
think of it.--Of "distressed needlewomen" who cannot sew, nor be
taught to do it; who, in private truth, are mutinous maid-servants
come at last to the net upshot of their anarchies; of these, or of
the like incurable phenomena, I hear nothing in Berlin; and can
believe that, under this King, Indigence itself may still have
something of a human aspect, not a brutal or diabolic as is
commoner in some places.--This is one of Friedrich's first acts,
this opening of the Corn-magazines, and arrangements for the
Destitute; [ Helden-Geschichte, i. 367.
Rodenbeck, Tagebuch aus Friedrichs des Grossen
Regentenleben (Berlin, 1840), i. 2, 26 (2d June,
October, 1740): a meritorious, laborious, though essentially
chaotic Book, unexpectedly futile of result to the reader; settles
for each Day of Friedrich's Reign, so far as possible, where
Friedrich was and what doing; fatally wants all index &c., as
usual.] and of this there can be no criticism. The sound of hungry
pots set boiling, on judicious principles; the hum of those old
women's spindles in the warm rooms: gods and men are well pleased
to hear such sounds; and accept the same as part, real though
infinitesimally small, of the sphere-harmonies of this Universe!


ABOLITION OF LEGAL TORTURE.

Friedrich makes haste, next, to strike into Law-improvements.
It is but the morrow after this of the Corn-magazines, by
KABINETS-ORDRE (Act of Parliament such as they can have in that